SVU Episode #14-16: Funny Valentine

Tonight’s SVU episode was a barely-fictionalized rendition of the tumultuous Rihanna/Chris Brown saga, except, in the end, the dewy-eyed songstress doesn’t top the music charts but is killed by her lover. The ending was dramatic – but realistic. Bravo to SVU for nailing the real challenges of prosecuting domestic-violence cases.

Recap:

A beautiful young singer named Micha records a duet with her baby-faced beau, Caleb. The beat is barely faded when Caleb starts flirting with another woman – and then punching Micha when she confronts him.

The next day, Micha’s face is covered in bruises, but she’s reluctant to testify against Caleb. She loves him. But Olivia flashes her patented empathetic smile, and Micha eventually admits that Caleb hit and strangled her.

A press frenzy ensues (with Perez Hilton playing himself). The two stars tweet up a storm, and their reps issue competing press releases.

Caleb goes on a talk show, the picture of contrition. “I love you, baby” he murmurs to the camera and thus to Micha, “That I hurt you, it tears me, up. I’m so so sorry. You’re all that matters. This ring is for you.” He displays a rock the size of a tennis ball.

Micha puts the ring on her finger and refuses to testify against him.

He soon tweets out a picture of himself in her bed. The cops promptly arrest him for violating the court’s stay-away order. But Micha says she invited him over – and he’s soon out of jail again.

Now comes the big party for the release of their duet. Caleb flies into another jealous rage, shoots Micha, and kills her beloved producer, Brass.

And she still won’t testify against him. No one at the club will either. Caleb comes into the police station with his lawyer and denies even being at the club. It looks like he’ll get away with murder.

Olivia reminds Micha how much she loved Brass – and Micha finally agrees to testify. But Caleb sweet-talks her overnight. The next day, she goes into the Grand Jury and recants. Although Barba threatens to charge her with perjury, she claims Caleb did nothing.

“Now what do we do?” Nick asks the team.

“We wait,” Munch says.

“For the inevitable,” Olivia adds.

Micha soon flies down to Bermuda for a romantic reunion with Caleb. It’s short-lived. When she questions him about a text from another woman, he is furious. He beats her … to death.

Verdict: A-

There were some strong Twitter reactions to tonight’s episode. Comedian Travon Free (@Travon) wrote, “This #SVU is literally an hour long ‘Rihanna you’re stupid’ PSA.” @MsEresDes2U tweeted, “On a scale of 1 to Chris brown…how mad are u about this #svu episode??”

I thought it was an excellent exploration of the real challenges of prosecuting domestic violence cases. As a prosecutor of the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence unit in D.C., I saw similar stories play out countless times (minus the platinum record sales).

And if you burnish your career by singing catchy songs about domestic violence – see “Love the Way You Lie” – you take the chance that your personal life will become that PSA.

What they got right:

The dramatic ending was based on grimly real statistics. Three women die every day as a result of domestic violence. 80% of DV victims are back with their abusers by the time of trial and want the charges dropped. In 70 to 80% of intimate partner homicides, the man physically abused the woman before the murder.

Tonight’s episode captured a nightmare familiar to every DV prosecutor: losing a case, and setting free an abuser who goes on to kill his victim. This was something that haunted me every day and kept me working late every night. (I thought about this issue so often, it became my first book, Law of Attraction, a novel about a DV homicide. )

Tonight’s episode also showed how DV cases are washed in the celebrity spin cycle. When Brown beat Rihanna before the 2009 Grammy’s, leaving bruises on her face and bite marks on her arms, the pictures soon leaked to TMZ.

Brown went on a strange apology tour, alternately contrite and angry, as if his real self kept trying to peer out from behind his publicist’s talking points.

Many of Chrianna’s real-life plot points have unfolded on Twitter. People realized they were back together when they both tweeted out different pictures of the same comforter.

And Perez Hilton continues his coverage of their every public move:

But many of this episode’s best moments came from the challenges of prosecuting everyday DV case, not the celebrity ones.

Nick took pictures of Caleb’s hands, noting his bruised knuckles. Well done, Nick. Police officers know that DV victims are likely to recant, and try to build the strongest possible case assuming they won’t have that testimony.

Strangling cases are particularly worrisome, because strangling can easily become lethal. This is a particularly alarming sign in an abusive relationship.

The protection-order issue was authentic. Sometimes an abuser goes back to the victim’s house, despite a stay-away order, because the victim invites him. Her invitation doesn’t remove the order – that belongs to the court, not her. Technically, the same penalties apply. That said, many judges look more sympathetically on a violator who was welcomed into the home.

DV incidents start in many ways – but the most common I saw was jealousy or suspicion that one partner is seeing someone else.

Caleb’s “I love you, baby, please forgive me” speech on the talk show was absolutely pitch-perfect. I’ve heard this call (often captured on jail calls, rather than Oprah’s couch) so many times. This is exactly what it sounds like.

Barba said, “There’s only so much you can do until the victim is ready.” So true, Barba. Still, prosecutors often try, like Barba did, to make the case despite the victim’s best efforts.

Finally, I nodded at the club shooting where no one would admit they saw the murder. We had a similar real case in DC, where a guy was repeatedly stabbed on a dance floor – surrounded by people who didn’t see thing.

What they got wrong:

No way – no way! – does Caleb’s lawyer let him talk to the police after the shooting. No defense attorney with an ounce of self-preservation would allow his obviously guilty and unpredictable client anywhere near an interrogation room. A lobster is just as likely to throw itself into a boiling pot.

What do you think, SVU fans? Did Chris Brown and Rihanna watch the episode? Will it affect their relationship? And were Olivia and Barba walking intriguingly close to each other as they left court? Leave your comments!

About Allison Leotta

Comments

Given her history of recanting, if I were Barba I would’ve had Brass’s family sitting in that court room.

I don’t want to make it sound like anyone deserves Micha’s fate, nobody does. But I had ZERO sympathy for her by the end of the episode. She KNEW what Caleb was capable of when angry (as we saw by the shooting). Yeah we all call Rihanna a moron for still being with Chris Brown, but I don’t remember him killing anyone, or at the very least his name in connection with someones murder.

From a writing standpoint this episode felt lazy and predictable. Aside from the murders you knew what to expect given the headline being ripped. It honestly felt like the only things different were the names of the characters.

I found the two throwaway comments made about both Micha and Caleb coming from families with abusive father figures powerful statements (which I wished had been developed more) for how ingrained the cycle of violence can be. This wasn’t just about an abuser and his victim, it was also about how they were raised and what was acceptable behavior to them, at least on a sub-conscious level.

I thought the writers did a terrific job with this episode, layering a ton of interesting commentary into the storyline; not just how easy it was for Caleb to win Micha back then abuse her again or their family histories of domestic violence, and the difficulty of handling and prosecuting such cases; but also it was a commentary on the gangsta rap fans and community who idolized Caleb, raising his street-cred because of what he’d done. It was about workplace violence. Especially in the entertainment industry where the hanger-ons would remain silent about witnessing of beating so they could save their own jobs and remain in good standing with the elite. It was also about exploiting the people for their brand (I loved Barbo’s comment–“corporations are people and people are brands”), and also the fan’s and media’s never-ending appetite for all the celebrity drama.

I enjoyed the show and it reminded me of episodes of old. I say give us more ‘ripped form the headlines’ stories like this one that explore current social issues and examine them from all sides, like they use to.

On the more personal front, I had the same thought, that Olivia and Barbo seemed to be walking mighty close together. As for the hand turning out to be Stabler–I’ll throw a shoe at the TV.